New Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander statistics for the Northern Territory (Media Release)

MEDIA RELEASE

June 23, 2004

Embargoed: 11:30 AM (AEST)

2004

New Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander statistics for the Northern Territory

The results of the second national social survey of Indigenous people were released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics and point to some changes since the groundbreaking original survey in 1994.

Education:

The proportion of Indigenous people in the Northern Territory (aged 15 and over) with a non-school qualification (e.g. from university, TAFE, etc.) has more than doubled between 1994 and 2002 - from 6% to 13%.

Excluding those who had a non-school qualification, the proportion of Indigenous people in the Northern Territory who had completed Year 12 rose (from 5% in 1994 to 9% in 2002).

Despite these improvements, in 2002 Indigenous people in the Northern Territory (aged 18 and over) were still less likely than non-Indigenous people to have a non-school qualification (18% compared with 54% respectively).

Work:

The unemployment rate for Indigenous people in the Northern Territory (aged 15 and over), fell from 36% in 1994 to 13% in 2002. This change parallels the decline in the national unemployment rate (from 10% in June 1994 to 6% in December 2002).

The share of unemployed Indigenous people in the Northern Territory who had been out of work for one year or more declined (from 48% in 1994 to 29% in 2002).

The Community Development Employment Projects scheme increasingly contributed to employment of Indigenous people in the Northern Territory (28% in 2002, up from 13% in 1994).

Income:

The gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples' incomes remains. In 2002, Indigenous people in the Northern Territory (aged 18 and over) earned 44% of the income of non-Indigenous people ($329 per week compared to $755 per week after adjusting for household size and composition).

There was a decline in the proportion of Indigenous people in the Northern Territory who received government pensions and allowances as their main source of income (from 59% in 1994 to 50% in 2002).

Health:

After adjusting for the different age structures of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations, Indigenous people in the Northern Territory were:

more likely than non-Indigenous people to report their health as "fair" or "poor"

less likely to report "excellent" or "very good" health.

Culture:

Over the eight years since 1994, evidence highlights stability onselected cultural indicators. In 2002 in the Northern Territory:

88% Indigenous people identified with a clan, tribal or language group.

almost two-thirds (63%) of Indigenous people reported using an Indigenous language as their main language spoken at home.

Family and community:

Indigenous people in 2002 in the Northern Territory were almost one and a half times more likely to experience at least one life stressor (e.g."death of family member or close friend", "serious illness or disability", or "inability to get a job") than non-Indigenous people (88% compared with 59% respectively).

Similar to the non-Indigenous community, the overwhelming majority of Indigenous people in the Northern Territory received support from someone outside the household (88% for Indigenous people compared with 94% for non-Indigenous people).

In 1994 and 2002, around the same proportion (5%) of Indigenous people in the Northern Territory (aged 15 or over) reported they had been taken away from their natural family.

Law and justice:

There has been a decline in the proportion of Indigenous people in the Northern Territory who reported having been arrested in the previous five years (from 19% in 1994 to 13% in 2002).

Compared to 1994, Indigenous people in the Northern Territory in 2002 were one and a half times more likely to report that they had been a victim of physical or threatened violence in the previous 12 months (17% in 2002, up from 11% in 1994).

Housing:

In the Northern Territory, the number of Indigenous people living in rented dwellings provided by Indigenous Housing Organisations or in other community housing in 2002 was 68% (up from 48% in 1994).

More details are available in National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey, 2002 (cat. no. 4714.0). State/territory comparisons for selected indicators are available in Table 2 of the publication. Additional state and territory data cube tables are available off the publication's main features page on the ABS web site or upon request.

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